Letter to an Unknown Pen Pal

My son came home from school with a fresh assignment: to write a letter to a pen pal.

“And where is the pen pal from?” I ask him, only faintly interested.

“Well, from Mandagascar,” he answers most categorically.

“Ha, I see. And do you know where that is?”

“Of course,” my son replies, offended. “Come on, I’ll show you on the map.”

And he drags me off to look at Madagascar on the map.

“I’ve got a friend from Mandagascar too. And do you know what Niri, my friend from Mandagascar, taught me?”

Now, his friend from Madagascar is not the pen pal he’s going to write to, but a classmate.

“And what did Niri teach you?” I ask with genuine curiosity.

“Well, that the most important thing is to smile and be in a good mood, because if you’re not, something bad can happen to you.”

“Is that why he’s always smiling?”

“Well, yeah. Both him and his mum always smile and never get cross.”

“There, you see? And you sometimes sulk over next to nothing.”

“Well, I’m not from Mandagascar,” comes his quick reply, for my son wasn’t born yesterday and knows how to explain to you what’s what and why it is so. I decided to spare him the needless moralising.

And so, a few days later, the letter was ready. I try not to meddle in my son’s writing, and he doesn’t meddle in mine. We’ve reached a tacit agreement that each of us may write whatever he pleases. And so we coexist in peace and harmony, each developing his writing in a different direction.

Here is what the little epistolary titan, the future Seneca of our age, had prepared:

Hi,

My name is Kaloyan and I’m 10 years old. Did you know I’ve got another friend from Mandagascar too. His name is Ny Riana, but everyone calls him Niri. He’s very kind and smiley and he says that way life is better and better things happen to him. Not like the grumpy people in Leningrad, who had nothing to eat for three whole years and most of them died of hunger. I only wondered if they had water, but Dad said they did. So they didn’t die of thirst.

We’re going to get a dog and I’m going to have a little sister too, but for now I don’t.

My favourite time of the day is the evening, because then school is over and sometimes I can play on the computer. Do you know “World of Warcraft”? I’m undead and I’m level 14 already, but I’ll level up fast, because I kill lots of monsters. But you probably don’t play much, because our teacher told us you don’t have much electricity. Our teacher said we’re going to collect money so you can build a chicken coop at your school, so you can get eggs and boil them for lunch. I really like chickens, and my granny Vyara even has a farm with lots of turkeys and a dog and four cats. But grandpa Sandyo died already. I also had a dog at granny Lili’s, but I haven’t seen him for ages and I don’t know if he’s still mine.

Bye then.

Kaloyan.

It turned out a fine letter. Well, now you’ll accuse me of reading letters not addressed to me. And you’ll be right. But you’re doing the very same thing right now, so I suggest we exchange a conspiratorial wink.

And then, some ten days later, the reply arrived, and the two of us sat down to read it:

Hello, Kaloyan

My name is Eloa and I am 11 years old and I send you my greetings. We live by the sea with Mum, Dad and my three sisters. My favourite time of the day is the morning, because then I know that soon I’ll be setting off for school and I’ll be able to learn lots of new things. I’ll learn to write better and to work out big numbers and sums. Then I come back home and go out to play or swim, or I carry on reading. The game you play sounds very interesting, but I don’t have it yet. Will you tell me more about it and about the undead? What I love most is swimming, and after that reading. My grandma and grandpa are alive, and you had better not say or write your grandpa’s name, because you might call back his spirit and he might get angry with you. My family sends greetings to you, and to your mum and dad. I don’t know anything about those people who went hungry, but now, when they build us the chicken coop, we’ll have lots of good things to eat with eggs and maize.

Bye

Eloa

Outside, the snow was coming down in great flakes and it was slowly getting dark. My son and I settled down to study. Each of us his own lessons.